1. Field of the Invention.
This invention relates generally to apparatus for handling articles of various kinds and relates particularly to a conveyor belt having a plurality of elongated tubular containers connected together in spaced generally parallel relationship for transfering the articles from one location to another.
2. Description of the Prior Art.
Heretofore many efforts have been made to provide conveyor belts for articles of various kinds, including elongated generally cylinderical articles such as ammunition used with automatic weapons. However, most of these prior art structures have included cloth belts which frictionally engaged the articles such as ammunition in a manner that the belt was fed through the chamber of a weapon where the projectile was fired, while the shell portion of the ammunition remained on the belt. Some examples of this type of structure are the U.S. Patents to Grubbs No. 735,757; Jennings No. 1,346,207; Hendley No. 2,337,657; Bonhofe et al No. 2,391,081; Goode No. 429,220; Rousing No. 3,706,260; and Grandy No. 3,759,137.
Normally relatively large cartridges of ammunication, such as 20 mm to 40 mm shells, are transported from a manufacturer to an ammunition depot in ammunition boxes and each of the shells is independently stored within a disposable protective wrapper constructed of heavy duty cardboard, pressed paper, or thermoplastic material. At the ammunition depot the shells are manually removed from the disposable wrapper after which the shells are inserted into a cartridge belt or the like and the protective wrappers are discarded.
Discarding the wrappers has resulted in loss and waste of this package material and has created a trash disposal problem. In addition, the use of shells packaged in removable separate wrappers has necessitated a cumbersome and time consuming transfer of the cartridges into a cartridge belt. Also it has been time consuming and difficult to efficiently store and dispose of used shells and misfired cartridges.
Although the invention will be described for use with the handling and storage of ammunition, it is contemplated that the present structure could be used for other article transfer systems which utilize a plurality of connected sleeves or containers that move the articles from one location to another.